Various outdoor cooking arrangements have been used for on-site food preparation at events such as private parties and picnics and public fairs and exhibitions. The food prepared for such events can include grilled items such as hamburgers and steaks, barbecued items such as whole chickens, and roasted items such as whole hogs. The heat is often provided by burning charcoal or liquid propane, and sometimes wood chips are also burned to give the food a smoke flavor. The most convenient cooking arrangement is in the form of a mobile unit that is towed to the food preparation site by a motor vehicle; see for example, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,158 to Schmidt, Jr. However, there remain health safety concerns about on-site outdoor food preparation because outdoor cooking devices typically include only manual temperature controls, and the operator may lack proper training in outdoor food preparation. Additionally, the cooking apparatus should be easy to use and configurable to satisfy different cooking requirements.